I am curious if there are others here that spin/jump clockwise, but are right-handed. I am always called a "lefty" at the rink because I rotate clockwise, but am actually right-handed. Anyone else out there like this? Any ideas why I might have found clockwise to be more natural when I started skating, despite the fact that I'm right-handed?

Just wondering!

I'm your basic, run-of-the-mill, right-handed counter-clockwise skater, but I'm pretty sure from previous discussions that handedness and spin direction do not necessarily correlate.

I'm a right handed clockwise skater. There are also alot of moves that are much stronger on my "wrong" side- because my strength is right sided, but the rotational direction is horribly uncomfortable going CCW.

I can "almost" do a loop CCW- because I am just muscling through the jump- I don't have the muscle in my left leg to jump off the same foot like that. But more than 2 rotations in a two footed spin CCW, and I feel like I can't stand up anymore- so I'm adapting my strength issues to CW.

I believe it's from my time as a dancer on a large drill team. Focus was about everything together- rather than strong balanced technique. We rarely did any spins to the left.

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I am a left handed CCW skater...a friend of mine was a left handed CW skater...but, when I first started, I did my flips the wrong way Maybe that's because my coach was a CW skater...hmmmm...

My daughter is a righthanded CW skater. She shoots pool, holds a hockey stick, swings a bat and cartwheels like a lefty, but plays golf like a righty. The rest of the family also does a lot of things lefty even though we are all right-handed. I had a coach ask me in group lessons if I was left-handed after helping me with mohawks. I never managed a decent 2-foot spin in either direction, so I can't say if I'm CCW or CW.

DD insisted on doing all her jumps in both directions for a long time but when she was struggling with getting a consistent loop her coach convinced her to stick to one direction. I wonder if right-handed CW skaters are usually sort of ambidextrous.

I'm a left handed CCW skater!

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I was taught to write rt-handed, though I can also write lefty. I am basically ambidextrous. I skate CW.

Kay

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No, A girl in my skating club is right handed but jumps and spins clockwise. Johnny Weir is also right handed but jumps clockwise. And my goodness Rohene Ward can jump through triple lutz in both directions!!!!!! I just wish he could pull his nerves together for competitions. That man has the potential to be the #1 ranked male skater in the world right now but he completely loses everything when he competes.


BlackManSkating

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My twin DDs are:

Twin A: Right-handed / Spin CW
Twin B: Left-handed / Spin CCW (Although she can fake a few the other way.)

I've had a number of students who were right-handed CW spinners and a few southpaw CCW spinners.

There's no hard-and-fast correlation between the two things.

Waaaay Off-Topic:
*Sigh* I adore Rohene Ward as a skater; would love to see him skate a clean program in person.
Such talent and so down-to-earth.
I really, really hope he pulls it together - it would be soooo wonderful to watch him do well.

Any news on him for this season?

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I'm thinking maybe preferred rotational direction is unrelated to handedness, just like which foot people prefer to have as the leading foot in a spread eagle or Ina Bauer (I prefer right foot in front, but a lot of skaters seem to prefer left). I think right-handed skaters are presumed to have better coordination on the right foot, so they are encouraged to land on that foot, which means jumping CCW. In ballet, don't they mostly rotate CW?

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i'm a right handed CW skater! I think its because i did gymnastics before i skated and most of the tumbling i did i took off my right foot so when i started skating and jumping i felt more comfortable taking off on my right foot. also pivots on the beam and stuff made spinning on my right foot feel better too so i think thats why skating CW is more comfortable for me.

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Dancers train to be balanced. They do everything in both directions.

Not in good ballet- a ballet dancer should be evenly trained in both directions.

But for the most part the vast majority of "dancers" do rotate primarily CW, as it is usually "easier" (the right pirouette is done on the left leg going CW, chaines and piques go CW) and so it is practiced more because studios put it into routines. So many dancers, who are more performance based, rather than training based, get much stronger rotating in that direction.

Growing up dancing I probably did 50 CW turns to 1 CCW turn. I have never tried some turns CCW, actually. Because dance is so accessible there is a lot of "bad" dance training out there. I never wanted to "be" a dancer, so I enjoyed the dancing I did- but it's a bad thing to be that unbalanced as a real dancer, and it is NOT uncommon at all to see that.

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I haven't heard anything from him since the 2007 Liberty competition. But I agree with you. He's such an amazing skater and he seems like a good person. I haven't met him personally but I have seen him skate and his potential is mind boggling. He's one of the reasons why I set my skating goals so high. That's motivation that I can do this, regardless of the perceived setbacks.

BlackManSkating

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Work on Double Axel and Rockers
Speed up back Camel

I am a lefty and prefer CW now. A LONG time ago, as a teenager, I could go either way though first learning anything seemed easier CCW. Go figger!

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I didn't get to see him at regionals- because by the time I was done making all the senior ladies copies the senior men had already skated- but I did see his short program protocols and he landed a quad toe-double toe combo. Everyone said his program was fantastic. I didn't see the long, or the protocols for it- but heard coaches gossiping that it was "typical" Rohene, so I assume he must have caved under pressure Hopefully he'll have a good showing at Sectionals.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
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I'm a right-handed CW skater. I started as an adult and there was never any doubt that I wanted to rotate CW, though I didn't know I was going the less typical way at first because I learned on inlines. When I got to my first freestyle sessions on ice I figured it out. I do remember, however, trying to decide (on my inlines) if I wanted to waltz jump lefty or righty. I went with lefty.

Like many skaters, I can do a waltz jump and salchow the wrong way. I have eeked out toe loops CCW, too, and can almost do a loop.

Skating made me realize that I have other lefty tendencies as well, and my family has many lefties. My tennis backhand is significantly better than my forehand (CW rotation), I hold a phone with my left hand, deal cards, cartwheel, all lefty style.

Writing is strictly righty. And here's a test - ever try to mouse w/ the other hand. Nearly impossible!

Tim

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Not all CW skaters are left-handed but I'm one of them. I'm strongly left-handed and am a clockwise skater. I do write with both hands (mostly my right) though do to a strongly opinionated nun when I was young but that is another story.

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I can jump through a flip in the opposite direction, as well as do an upright spin. I'm RH and CCW.

My son is RH, but he plays hockey, bats, and golfs left handed. When he spins around on his skates when he's bored during practice, he goes CCW. However, in the few times that he's been on figure skates, he's jumped CW. Guess he's a bit of a mess.

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I'm a clockwise skater also but I write with my right hand. It's not just figure skating that I'm like that, I'm also like that in golf, baseball, and trampoline. I guess it is because my mom is left handed and my dad is right handed. I'm also pretty good at writing with my left hand but I write with my right!! I also have a coach who is a clockwise skater, she made up this joke about how all the clockwise skaters spin the right way(get it we spin to the right!!), that night all the clockwise skaters were laughing and the counter clockwise skaters didn't get the joke. I can also jump and spin pretty well counter clockwise way.

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I don't believe that skating CW qualifies a skater as a 'weirdo.'
Is that a reference to Johnny Weir? (Who is a CW skater)

If not, some people might find it insulting.

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Wow. I was a dancer for 16 years and have to say that I've never encountered this, even in the lower levels that were more "recreational" dancing that either I taught, my friends taught, or our instructors taught. I've been trained quite evenly, and am actually more comfortable CCW -- which transferred into my skating.

I'm completely ambidextrious and do most things both ways (writing, eating, sports, etc), but skating I'm firmly CCW. It's quite odd, actually, as literally most everything else I do is even both directions.

And to whoever said about the strict nun, my father was raised that way (left-handedness was bad in the Church).
I was purely a lefty as a child, apparently, and my dad kept feeding everything to my right hand! I always had to be careful (even through high school) at the dinner table that I ate with my fork in my right hand or else he would say something. Hence how I became ambidextrious!

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I'm a left-handed CCW skater. I do most sports right handed, including bat sports, but not raquet sports. Right footed kicker for soccer too. I'm pretty ambidextrous.

My very right-handed daughter could naturally jump and spin both ways, didn't bother her. Just depended which foot she happened to push off onto as to which way she did it. I wonder if autism spectrum disorder makes a difference there.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

I'm a right handed CW skater!!!!

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Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

This is something I've actually been thinking about quite a lot recently!

Both in my early dancing years, and in my later professionally trained years, we always had to do exactly the same exercises in both directions: Triple pirouette clockwise, triple pirouette counter-clockwise. Pique's from the left corner (CW), pique's then from the right corner (CCW).

However, my preference was always for clockwise as I felt much more balanced that way.

Interestingly, on the ice, in the tiny bit of spinning I have started to do, I prefer spinning CCW . . .

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